[NYTr] Chavez Sings Defiant Tune at Ibero-American Summit

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

Reuters via The New York Times - Nov 9, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/world/international-chile-summit.html


Chavez Sings Defiant Tune At Summit

By REUTERS

SANTIAGO (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez crooned defiant
lyrics to reporters as he arrived in Chile on Friday for a summit of
leaders from the Latin world where he might meet with Colombia's
president to discuss talks with Colombian rebels.

Chavez, an ex-soldier, has been mediating between the government of
neighboring Colombia and Marxist guerrillas to try to arrange an
exchange of hostages in rebel captivity for guerrillas held in
government prisons.

"I am who I am, if they don't like me, that's their problem," sang
Chavez, a leftist and strident opponent of the United States who has
used his country's oil wealth to spread his influence and self-styled
socialist revolution in the region.

A day earlier, anti-Chavez protesters scuffled with Chavez supporters
outside Venezuela's Embassy in Santiago. Detractors tried to submit a
letter declaring him unwelcome.

Leaders -- most of them leftist -- from around Latin America and from
Portugal, Spain and Andorra are in Santiago for a three-day
Ibero-American summit where the unofficial agenda is expected to be
dominated by stretched energy supplies for their booming economies.

Among several expected bilateral encounters to focus on energy is a
meeting between Bolivian President Evo Morales and Brazil's president,
Luiz Inacio Lula de Silva, to discuss potential new investments in
Bolivia's natural gas industry.

Lula is also due to meet with Paraguayan President Nicanor Duarte
Frutos, and he may seek to get Duarte to guarantee increased energy
supplies to Brazil.

Colombian President Alvaro Uribe said he would meet with Chavez to
discuss the talks with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or
FARC.

"Chavez will tell me about his meeting with a delegate of the FARC
terrorist group who have held many kidnapped Colombians for many years,
a terrorist group that have killed many of the kidnapped," Uribe told
journalists at the summit.

The FARC wants rebel prisoners freed in exchange for their most
high-profile captives, including French-Colombian politician Ingrid
Betancourt and three U.S. contract workers held for years in jungle
camps.

Chavez said on Thursday he was "optimistic more than ever of this
humanitarian exchange."

But he said he did not have any one-on-one meetings planned.

"I don't like bilaterals. As far as I know, nobody has asked me for one
and neither have I. But if I bump into somebody and they want to talk,
I'm happy to do so," he said.

(Additional reporting by Rodrigo Martinez, Monica Vargas and Antonio de
la Jara; Editing by Fiona Ortiz and Mohammad Zargham)